Sad ! sad ! sad ! So sad that the wind itself did not show up for what was almost certainly the last start of an 60ft Orma trimaran race, the Transat Jacques Vabre starting from le Havre. What a shame !... How is it possible that this formidable fleet that was still racing 2 years ago with the most performing offshore boats in the world - by far !...- is now reduced to 4 with the terrible prospect that non of them will be racing anymore ?...
I see two mains reasons : it was too expensive, far too expensive, at least for the media exposure given to the sponsors in return. And, more difficult to admit, all the people involved in the fleet, sponsors, race organisers, sailors, designers, have collectively failed to develop their sport at a point that even the young sailors that try to make a professional career prefer to think to a Vendée Globe than to multihull racing. Too expensive, too exclusive, too french, too everything and not enough management.
So goodbye those fantastic reaches bow to stern at more than 35 knots, goodbye those spectacular mark roundings with crew grabing what they can when the windward float was 15 m up in the air, no more formidable upwind legs at 17 knots, finished those crazy accelerations when the boats were bearing off at the windward mark like rockets.
For having the great privilege to take photos of those boats for years, I can tell you that nothing, really nothing can be as wild as racing aboard a 60 ft multihull in stong breeze. The only thing you are concentrated on is to hold on to avoid to be thrown away by the next wave. Those guy who were sailing those machine are really incredible sailors, especially those crazy ones who were racing them singlehanded. And don't even t think that they were doing so at night with zero visibility...
Now, what's the future ?... As the people who were in this circuit for years cannot live without multihull racing, they are now trying to set a new circuit with 70 ft one design with severe cost limitations, technical ruling to make the boats more reliables, safer, and with some rules, format and planning to attract racing sailors from all around the world. Let's hope they will succeed and that we'll see new offshore racing multihulls soon.
I see two mains reasons : it was too expensive, far too expensive, at least for the media exposure given to the sponsors in return. And, more difficult to admit, all the people involved in the fleet, sponsors, race organisers, sailors, designers, have collectively failed to develop their sport at a point that even the young sailors that try to make a professional career prefer to think to a Vendée Globe than to multihull racing. Too expensive, too exclusive, too french, too everything and not enough management.
So goodbye those fantastic reaches bow to stern at more than 35 knots, goodbye those spectacular mark roundings with crew grabing what they can when the windward float was 15 m up in the air, no more formidable upwind legs at 17 knots, finished those crazy accelerations when the boats were bearing off at the windward mark like rockets.
For having the great privilege to take photos of those boats for years, I can tell you that nothing, really nothing can be as wild as racing aboard a 60 ft multihull in stong breeze. The only thing you are concentrated on is to hold on to avoid to be thrown away by the next wave. Those guy who were sailing those machine are really incredible sailors, especially those crazy ones who were racing them singlehanded. And don't even t think that they were doing so at night with zero visibility...
Now, what's the future ?... As the people who were in this circuit for years cannot live without multihull racing, they are now trying to set a new circuit with 70 ft one design with severe cost limitations, technical ruling to make the boats more reliables, safer, and with some rules, format and planning to attract racing sailors from all around the world. Let's hope they will succeed and that we'll see new offshore racing multihulls soon.
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